1. “A passive defence is deadly and does not win battles. Aggressive action is safer and more prolific of victory. Troops that have the initiative, hold the advantage. They force others to play their game.” (Lincoln C. Andrews)

2. “You need battle plans, not business plans.’ (Henry Ford)

3. “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.” (Victor Hugo)

4. “Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win wars.” (Carl von Clauswitz)

5. “Strategy win victories, but only when crowned by tactical success at the end of each move or series of moves.” (John G. Burr)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place

So the Big Brother experiment is set to finally close. For years an institution – holding a mirror up to society and asking what we thought will air its final misdemeanors in 2010. Whilst it is impossible to argue that the programme was anything other than a resounding success for makers Endemol, viewing figures have been on the decline, dropping below 2 million on eviction nights for the first time in its UK history. So with the nation’s most notorious reality TV programme set to be pulled next year what (if anything) does this tell us about changes in viewing habits or media consumption?

I would argue probably very little.

For as long as I can remember the British media have loved to demonize imperfect reflections of their culture and in a fixation with Big Brother we were given a weekly opportunity to revel in exactly that. I would compare it to what will happen when our cricketers return from Australia next year after surrendering the Ashes. The recent fanfare will be quickly forgotten in a blitz of demonization and degradation. The ability to accentuate the negative in all around us is a favourite pastime of the British Media and I doubt that this will change with the passing of Big Brother. In fact, there have been recent suggestions that as viewing figures have trailed off so has press coverage in the Red-Tops. With a lack of media support, a tired format and the early adopters of the groundbreaking series moving on it’s no wonder BB has struggled.

Another reason put forward as partly accountable for the demise and of interest from a brand perspective is that the BB brand was casting a darker and darker shadow over Channel 4. Reportedly C4 felt that BB had become the equivalent of a rogue sub-brand whose worst features were polluting the vision, image and reputation of its master. This is an example of what we would call the ‘halo effect’ in reverse – rather than endorsing the quality of the Masterbrand of C4 the BB sub-brand was, through the associations with faux-celebrity and scandal, in fact doing the absolute opposite.

Watch this space for some Channel 4 post-Big Brother repositioning – although I’m not sure how they are going to pay for it because they are supposed to be skint.

As for the rest of us, I’m sure we have already found something else to watch.

Probably The Wire.

1. “Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.” (Sigmund Freud)

2. “On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity.” (Adam Smith)

3. “Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.” (Roger von Oech)

4. “I have always felt that a woman has the right to treat the subject of her age with ambiguity until, perhaps, she passes into the realm of over ninety. Then it is better she be candid with herself and with the world.” (Helena Rubinstein)

5. “The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn’t need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas.” (Abe Tannenbaum)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Today my eye fell on an online petition about bringing back Kellogg’s Corn Pops cereal to UK supermarket shelves. As a Corn Pops aficionado, I started to wonder about the fate of this cereal overseas. I realised that, while this product disappeared over here a few years ago, Kellogg’s successfully re-launched Corn Pops in Mexico a few months ago with a change of image, packaging and tone of voice.

The overall purpose of the re-launch has been to grow the cereal consumption amongst teenagers in Mexico. Its population is the eleventh largest in the world, and almost twice as big as that of the UK. A third of its population is under 16 years old and it is the country with third highest cereal consumption per capita in the world, after Australia and USA. This emphasises the size of the business opportunity.

The new Corn Pops product has also come with pop characters and avatars that are meant to engage closely with teenagers. Although it is too early to say anything about sales improvements, the revitalisation of this product has triggered a lot of buzz around the brand on the other side of the Atlantic. There are several forums and websites with very enthusiastic comments about the brand from both target consumers and marketers.

It seems that a key success factor has been Kellogg’s strategy based on text speak – speaking in the same language that youngsters use when sending text messages through mobile phones and online chat.

Text speak is used across Corn Pops’ communications, virtual community and packaging as can be seen in these pictures.

As I left Latin America before the text messaging boom, I have to admit I don’t fully understand what Corn Pops is saying on its new Mexican packages and online community. However I have to say that this is a very good example of brand revitalisation. I reckon that Kellogg’s with this strategy would not only see its sales figures soar within its target market but it would no longer have to remove this product from retail shelves again.

Should Kellogg’s share its practices from the other side of the Atlantic, then there is hope for the UK online petitioner.

Brand revitalisation has always been at heart of the Value Engineers because we know what it takes to build a successful brand over time. For more than 20 years we have been committed to helping brands – large, small, global and national – to regain their profitability, purpose and momentum, and we have identified the 8 most successful strategies for revitalising brands. If you would like to find out more about our brand revitalising strategies, why don’t you get in touch with us?

When going to Columbia Flower Market the other day I came across Seamus Ryan’s photo studio – a little photo art studio where Seamus exhibits his art and does lots of fun little art projects in which the public can participate.

There is one particular project I came across which grabbed my attention called ‘Evidence’:

“In this project we asked the public to reveal all that stuff they carry around with them. Handbags were emptied and pockets turned out to give a rare insight into what people just can’t leave home without. Participants were responsible for their own arrangement of items. What these images say about their owners is subjective. They do, however, show how dependant on gizmos and gadgets many of us are.”

Check out the website and the wonderful insights you can draw. e.g. what brands do people tend to carry around with them, what kind of mobile phones are used, what are the preferred chewing gum brands etc…

Some observations of the most common items…

Those pictures have been taken in London, so not surprisingly most bags contain:

• An Oyster card – note the power of wallet branding – IKEA is a brand that appears everywhere as sponsor of those wallets, great branding impact!
• An A-Z

Items you can find in (nearly) every bag:

• Mobile phone
• Cash
• Hair brushes (for girls)
• Chewing gum
• Vaseline lip balm
• Medicine (that really surprised me, that nearly every bag contains some kind of pills)

Predominant brands across the bags:

• iPod
• Marlboro
• Extra
• Vaseline
• Kleenex

Ever thought about what your bag content is saying about you?